IRISH AFFAIRS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2541, 26 November 1902, Page 15

IRISH AFFAIRS.

THE DOINGS OF THE NATIONALISTS . LONDON, November 17. A sensation has been created in Dublin by a letter from Archbishop Walsh to the Freeman's Journal, in which that prelate describes as intolerable that journal's criticisms of law and conspiracy in connection with the Tallow case, in which the Land League leaders were mulcted in £5000 damages for conspiring to boycott a shopkeeper for taking an evicted farm. The Freeman's Journal declared that law, in the eyes of Justice Pallas, was a mere abstract fetish, and adds that reforms are impossible without injury to the individual or to some class. I The Archbishop's letter is welcomed as a stimulus to saner Nationalist opinion, and is attributed in some quarters' to the Irish vote on the education question, or else to a general hint from the Vatican. November 18. The Independent, published at Dublin, denounces Mr William O'Brien's reckless folly in the Tallow case, and summons him to pay the shopkeeper's damages. Eleven hundred and twenty-eight owners of upwards of 500 acres are in favour and 578 against a conference of Irish landlords and tenants. Mr T. Healy is leader of a new Moderate party, which at present consists of nine Nationalists. | November 19. Mr Duffy, M.P., has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment at Mount Beilow on a charge of conspiracy. The Times' Dublin correspondent says there is an uneasy impression in Unionist eirlces that there is some sort of a deal going on Nationalists and the Government. The suspicion is probably due to the cessation of parliamentary obstruction, also to MacDonnell's appointment. The idea is further strengthened by Mr O'Brieu's declaration that the Nationalists had secured at the hands of the Government advantage, placing a settlement of the great land question almost beyond danger. November 20.

Mr Redmond, M.P., had an enthusiastic reception at a torchlight procession in Dublin. In a speech from the league offices' balcony he said he was responsible for the policy the party in the House of Commons had arranged prior to his departure. They had returned to Ireland to fight landlords and coercion. November 21. Mr Russell, a Commoner, after a , meeting at Dromore, in County Down, was hustled, kicked, stoned, and injured on the head. He complains that out of five members of the constabulary only one sought to protect him. In order to satisfy the verdict awarded in the Tallow case, the sheriff's officers have seized defendant's cattle on relatives' or neighbours' lands, thus raising the question of ownership. Mr T. Healy, on being interviewed, ' accused Mr T. P. O'Connor, M.P., of arranging for the Nationalists' abstention from taking .part in the Education Bill debate, Mr Healy says that this decision was arranged in August, with 1 a view to averting Irish, dissatisfaction ; also thct Mr TV. O'Brien should provoke coercion and imprisonment as an excuse for his abstention, while Mr J. E. Redmond and Mr J. Dillon went to America to escape resnonsibilitv.

November 23. j In connection with the Tallow Irish Land League conspiracy case, the police have taken possession of defendant's shops and farms. The plaintiff bought at auction defendant's cattle at nominalprices.